Start 2020 with Clean Data

You have set your goals, have calendared out your big events, and thought through strategies for stewarding top prospects for your nonprofit. 2020 is set to be a strong fundraising year! But before you dive too far into the year, take some time to ensure you are starting the year with clean data.

Not sure where to start? Here are five tips to get your database in prime condition:

Junk in, junk out. We cannot stress this
enough. Your database is only as valuable as the quality of the data entry. If
the data is being entered lackadaisically and details are being skipped or
misinterpreted and entered incorrectly, your database quickly becomes useless
for meaningful analysis and unreliable for queries. When this goes on unchecked
for some time, we often see staff creating sub databases that serve their work.
This is a poor use of staff time and creates a significant risk for data loss.

Data can be descriptive and interpreted many
ways without structure, training, and oversight. Data isn’t as
straightforward as you may think. Whoever is doing your entry is making many
best-guesses as they input. For example, many nonprofits receive direct mail
responses from elderly individuals whose handwriting can be difficult to read.
If your data entry team lacks context, they are likely to guess incorrectly.
The individual or team that does your data entry should be given clear
expectations, regular training, and should be audited for accuracy regularly.
This is possible even if your database is managed by a volunteer with a regular
check in conversation and occasional quality checks.

Connect your data entry staff, volunteer, or
team with your leadership who run the reports. You would be surprised to
find out how few data entry team members understand how the data is intended to
be used. They can often make constructive suggestions on better outputs or
alternatively, can adjust how they input data to give you more meaningful info.
For example, explaining the remittance strategy to the full team can ensure
that those who are entering the data pick up on how donors are responding.
Donors often submit doodles or notes with their gifts, or underline certain
language. Your data team is the best on the ground resource to quickly share
that perspective as you craft future asks.

Validate your address data directly with the
USPS, or a service that pulls the USPS data directly into your database every
quarter. Not only is this likely to save you lots of returned mail, it is
also a way to keep your cost down. If you standardize your data with USPS
standards, your nonprofit will have the opportunity to mail at the nonprofit
bulk postage rate as well. On a similar note, be sure to track your rate of
returned mail for two weeks after each discrete mailing as an indicator of the
health of your database.

Update each profile based off data indicators
on the responses. Change their name to how they spell it, make a note if
they underline, circle, or heart a program description. Reviewing returned mail
is a great way to prospect for legacy donors who often indicate that they have
put the charity in their will or estate plans. While these types of legacy
gifts will not “count” towards best practice fundraising goals as they are
revocable, the knowledge allows you to better steward the donor and potentially
increase the gift size or find an opportunity for another life-gift sooner.

Lastly, as your database team imports the last of 2019 gifts, now is the perfect time to run your LYBUNT and SYBUNT reports if you didn’t already run them heading into the fourth quarter. Need a refresher of what those reports are and why they can be helpful? Take a look at this article on mining your database.

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Our dynamic team has over 300 years of combined experience in both the non-profit and business sectors. The Starfish Impact approach creates a flexible team of experts that best suits the funding goals, operational targets, financial needs, and culture of the organization. Read more